Self-propelled pneumatic tools for making small diameter holes through soil are well known. Such tools are used to form holes for pipes or cables beneath roadways without need for digging a trench across the roadway. These tools include, as general components, a torpedo-shaped steel body having a tapered nose and an open rear end, an air supply hose which enters the rear of the tool and connects it to an air compressor, a piston or striker disposed for reciprocal movement within the tool, and an air distributing mechanism for causing the striker to move rapidly back and forth. The striker impacts against the front wall (anvil) of the interior of the tool body, causing the tool to move violently forward into the soil. The friction between the outside of the tool body and the surrounding soil tends to hold the tool in place as the striker moves back for another blow, resulting in incremental forward movement through the soil. Exhaust passages are provided in the tail assembly of the tool to allow spent compressed air to escape into the atmosphere.
Most impact boring tools of this type have an air distributing mechanism which utilizes a stepped air inlet. The step of the air inlet is in sliding, sealing contact with a tubular cavity in the rear of the striker. The striker has radial passages through the tubular wall surrounding this cavity, and an outer bearing surface of enlarged diameter at the rear end of the striker. This bearing surface engages the inner surface of the tool body.
Air fed into the tool enters the cavity in the striker through the air inlet, creating a constant pressure which urges the striker forward. When the striker has moved forward sufficiently far so that the radial passages clear the front end of the step, compressed air enters the space between the striker and the body ahead of the bearing surface at the rear of the striker. Since the cross-sectional area of the front of the striker is greater than the cross-sectional area of its rear cavity, the net force exerted by the compressed air now urges the striker backwards instead of forwards. This generally happens just after the striker has imparted a blow to the anvil at the front of the tool.
As the striker moves rearwardly, the radial holes pass back over the step and isolate the front chamber of the tool from the compressed air supply. The momentum of the striker carries it rearward until the radial holes clear the rear end of the step. At this time the pressure in the front chamber is relieved because the air therein rushes out through the radial holes and passes through exhaust passages at the rear of the tool into the atmosphere. The pressure in the rear cavity of the striker, which defines a constant pressure chamber together with the stepped air inlet, then causes the striker to move forwardly again, and the cycle is repeated.
In some prior tools, the air inlet includes a separate air inlet pipe, which is secured to the body by a radial flange having exhaust holes therethrough, and a stepped bushing connected to the air inlet pipe by a flexible hose. These tools have been made reversible by providing a threaded connection between the air inlet sleeve and the surrounding structure which holds the air inlet concentric with the tool body. The threaded connection allows the operator to rotate the air supply hose and thereby displace the stepped air inlet rearwardly relative to the striker. Since the stroke of the striker is determined by the position of the step, i.e., the positions at which the radial holes are uncovered, rearward displacement of the stepped air inlet causes the striker to hit against the tail nut at the rear of the tool instead of the front anvil, driving the tool rearward out of the hole. See, for example, Wentworth et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,025,868 and 5,337,837.
Expanders are tapered, ring-shaped shells that fit over the tapered nose portion of an earth boring tool in order to widen the hole made by the tool as it passes through the ground. In this manner, a 4 inch diameter tool may be used to make a 6 or 8-inch diameter hole. The tool is often sent through to make an initial bore, and then sent through a second time with the expander in order to widen the existing hole and/or crack an existing pipe. According to a known method, a plastic pipe may be attached to the back of the expander with the above described reversible tool inside the pipe so that the pipe is installed as the tool moves through the soil, with or without additional widening of the bore.
The tool body of the pneumatic impact tool used in such pipe pulling operations is the single largest and most expensive component of the tool, weighing over 1000 pounds in a large diameter tool. Known tool bodies include a long tubular housing and a tapered nose, which may be integral with the housing or a separate assembly secured to it. The former are made by machining or by swaging as described in Wentworth et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,430, issued Jan. 30, 1996. The present invention provides a pneumatic impact tool specially adapted for pipe pulling operations in which the traditional tubular steel tool body is eliminated.